Dancing On Ice
by Phoenix on cloud nine
Summary: Vince persuades Howard to go ice skating ;D Not as crubbish as it sounds, I assure you :P


**Hey, so... this is what being bored and having a broken toe does to ya ;)**

"Come on Howard, no one's going to be watching you, it'll be packed, they won't even see you"

"They'll see me if I fall over" Howard replied grimly.

Vince was trying to get his friend to come with him ice skating. He'd seen in Cheekbone that it gave you better shape and the fumes from the ice freshened your face and got rid of any blemishes. Of course, he didn't want to go on his own, and after frantically calling everyone in his phone book, he had begrudgingly asked Howard to come. Vince, of course, thought that this was a very selfless act and was quite annoyed when the other man kept refusing. He valiantly tried again,

"Howard, please? We haven't done anything that's just you and me for ages!" That, mixed with the puppy dog eyes won him over, and finally, he rolled his eyes, but said,

"Fine, but if anyone laughs at me, I'm getting out of there and refusing to come back in". Vince held his hands up in a sort of mock-surrender,

"Fine, chill. I guess you've never ice skated before?" Howard glared and shook his head. Vince beamed at him and said,

"Me neither, should be fun, we can hold hands if you want, keep each other up" Howard blushed slightly and coughed,

"I'm going to get a warmer jacket" He stammered, and fled into his bedroom.

Heart hammering, Howard tried to remain calm, but that wasn't one of the strong points of his personality. Why did he keep having these feelings? Ever since the incident at his birthday party, he'd felt that he'd drifted away from Vince, sniping and bitching back when the younger man did, but Vince would do one thing, just a small thing, like a sincere smile from under his fringe, lightly touching Howard on the hands when passing him something or beaming a good morning… and Howard would just melt.

"Howard?" Vince asked through the door, sounding slightly nervous, scared of being forgotten, "Are you alright?" Howard nodded, before realising that was stupid, and opened the door. As soon as he did so he came face to face with Vince,

"Erm…" He stuttered, throat gone dry as his nose was literally an inch away from Vince's.

"Shall… shall we go?" Vince stammered, skin looking pink, although Howard assumed that was because of the light.

--

"This is genius!" Vince trilled, gazing around at the rink. It had neon lights skirting the sides, making the ice glow softly with bright colours, and lighting up people's faces and bodies, looking radiant with the cool glow of the lighting and their cheerful expressions. Howard too, was staring around, but not with the same joyful expression as the man next to him. He gulped as he saw couples gliding round holding hands, at the fact that there was barely anyone there, so he would draw a lot of attention to himself. But mostly, he gulped as he saw that Vince was wearing skinnies that were so tight they must have been painted on, and a tight top, which rolled up when he stretched and showed his naval.

"Howard, c'mon, they're waiting" A voice broke his thoughts as he turned to see he was at the desk, the cashier waiting glumly for him to pay,

"Oh… sorry" Was all he said, and gave the man two tenners. An hour's session. He jumped slightly as Vince grabbed his wrist and dragged him towards a new desk that kept the skating boots,

"Size 5 please" Vince beamed, grinning at Howard in anticipation and excitement. Howard smiled back fondly and got his skates, paling slightly as he saw the sharpness on the bottom of them. Slipping them on, he stood up slowly, glad to see they were quite easy to walk on. On land maybe, but what about the ice? He reminded himself. He sighed and followed Vince onto the rink, preparing himself for utter embarrassment when he would inevitably fall over.

He slowly put his feet onto the ice and grabbed onto the rail, although he wasn't falling,

"Come on Howard!" Vince huffed, in front of him, "It'll be easy once you get it" Howard nodded, but must of his attention was on the ice in front of him. Breathing heavily, he slowly put one foot forward, then the other, after a while trailing them both over the ice, almost skating properly as he shakily kept behind Vince, who didn't look like he was having that much difficulty. He turned around and exclaimed,

"You're almost getting it! Here, grab on" Before Howard knew what was happening, Vince had taken his hand and was slowly guiding him over the ice, eventually becoming faster as more than half an hour passed, with just their skates penetrating the silence.

Soon, their hour was nearly up, but Vince wanted to try one more thing,

"No Vince, look I've skated round with you, but I'm tired now, I really don't want to skate anymore" Howard argued, although not very strongly.

"Just one more thing Howard, I wanna skate down the middle, rather than being at the sides" Howard bit his lip. He would fall, he knew he would, and there wasn't a barrier to pull himself up on, so he'd just be on his knees the whole time. However, Vince couldn't be swayed and soon he was skating down the middle, almost sauntering as if he was on dry land. Howard had chosen to stay stood at the side, but his smile soon shrank as Vince had turned back and gotten up to him, taking his hand once again and trying to pull him in,

"Please" Vince whispered, looking at him with big blue eyes, which Howard couldn't resist and was soon moving extremely slowly down the centre, moving his feet in time with Vince's, until suddenly they were at the other side, having moved quite gracefully down the rink.

"We should so do this again sometime," Vince said, beaming as Howard wasn't arguing with that, "Maybe we could try proper ice dancing, like the professionals"

"I think that might be a step too far Vince" Howard replied drily, but didn't say anything else as they made their way towards the gate out of the rink. However, just as they were getting out, Howard's skate caught on the small step, and he tripped, careering into Vince and sending them both flying.

He quickly got back up, and dusted himself down, as though nothing had happened, and looked down to see if Vince was ok. He was shocked to see Vince's body jerking up and down, as though he was crying, gently touching his shoulder, Howard jumped as he saw Vince was laughing,

"What's so funny?" He asked, highly affronted,

"You, you bomberclark! Here's you getting all worried about falling over on the ice, but then you go and fall over on dry land!",

"I don't see the funny side" He huffed, but Vince's giggling was starting to get infectious and he soon joined in, helping his friend to his feet.

"Maybe we should do this again" Howard mused,

"Are you asking me on a date?" Vince asked, still quite giggly from what just happened. Howard blushed, but righted himself. If he could step into an ice skating rink and not fall over, he could do anything. He just needed to try, or he'd never know.

"Yes, are you interested?" He asked, carefully studying Vince's face. His heart in his mouth as he watched Vince's eyes spark brightly before he jumped forward and gave Howard a quick peck on the lips.

"Absolutely, but I'm picking the place"

"You picked it this time!" Howard said, pulling an amused face, head still reeling from the kiss,

"Let me choose it" Vince mumbled, nuzzling into Howard's face and kissing him again. Well, he couldn't really refuse, could he?

**Review? It'll help my poorly toe lol :P**


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